In Honor of the Supreme Court Deciding on Proposition 8

Because we live in a country where it is still legal to fire someone based on their sexual orientation or gender identity in 34 states. That is more than half.

Because we live in a country where 40% of homeless youth are LGBT, many of whom are forced out of their homes when their parents discover their sexual orientation.

Because we live in a country where rhetoric around public assistance still focuses on marriage as the be all end all to help people, especially women with children, escape poverty (and that rhetoric is unhelpful at best, and actively pernicious at worst).

Because we live in a country where the rich give about half as much of their income to charity as the poor do.

It is beyond important that anyone who chooses should be able to make a family, whether that is through marriage or through other means. And everyone, especially those who build non-normative lives and families, deserve respect, dignity, and justice.